Mike is a retired stock broker, and now published author of Gold Rush!. In addition, he is a freelance writer specializing in real estate, personal finance and home decor now writing from San Miguel, Mexico.

U.S. immigration officials say today they’ve determined the identity of the 24-year-old woman who drove a van into a school bus, killing four children last week in southwestern Minnesota.

The driver has been identified as Olga Marina Franco and she’s from Guatemala, according to Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Chicago.

Franco has been charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide stemming from the Feb. 19 crash near Cottonwood. Witnesses say she blew through a stop sign, jumped over some railroad tracks and hit the rear of the bus, which tipped over and collided with a pickup truck.

The woman initially said her name was Alianiss Nunez Morales, but ICE officials said she was using a fake name and was here illegally.

It’s 100% preventable. Olga Marina Franco should not have been in this country. If the U.S. Government was doing its job, four children might be alive today.

Update:

Friday (2/29/08) Olga Marina Franco del Cid was charged with federal identity theft and social security charges. In a release from the United States Attorney’s office in Minnesota, Franco del Cid told investigators shortly after the crash she was Alianiss Morales, but when federal agents tracked down the real Morales, she told authorities her purse and identification documents were stolen six months ago while she was living in Puerto Rico. The U.S. Attorney’s office says Franco del Cid allegedly used those documents to apply for jobs in Minnesota and also used Morales’s social security card to get a Minnesota state I.D. card.